Joe Conason's Journal

Rush, George's li'l brother, Ol' Strom and the indelible stench of hypocrisy.

Published December 17, 2003 11:18PM (EST)

The annals of hypocrisy
Right-wing humbuggery always entails the danger that the humbug will someday get caught. That pitfall opened wide on several occasions during the past several days, in events that haven't received their due from the cowering "liberal" media.

Recovering addict Rush Limbaugh has never made much noise about the rights of potential criminal defendants (or anyone else, including liberal politicians), until he protested bitterly this week about the seizure of his medical records by Florida prosecutors. Limbaugh complains that investigators are mercilessly violating his personal privacy in pursuit of a political vendetta. When a certain former president indignantly defended his "privacy" during a criminal investigation, didn't Rush and his loyal dittoheads enjoy a hearty laugh?

And didn't George W. Bush and his supporters assure us that they would restore "honor and dignity" to the White House? They had best not invite little brother Neil to any holiday festivities, because his exceptionally messy divorce recently led to a paternity test (along with sharp questions about his business ties to communist Chinese ruling circles.) If these events had occurred in the family of a certain former president, wouldn't they have made front-page news everywhere?

Finally, there's the ringing vindication of Marilyn W. Thompson and Jack Bass, authors of "Ol' Strom," their "unauthorized" 1999 biography of the South Carolina senator and Dixiecrat presidential candidate. Thompson and Bass exposed the unacknowledged fact that he had fathered the daughter of his family's African-American maid, years before his white survivors 'fessed up on Monday. Wasn't a similar accusation falsely trumpeted against a certain former president, while Ol' Strom's revelations were ignored? And why has no one yet asked Trent Lott to comment further on his late colleague's legacy?
[3:14 p.m. PST, Dec. 17, 2003]

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